Page 98 of Happily Ever After

“I can,” he said. “And I’m glad they’re proving you right about your story being worth telling.”

She sank back into her chair. “Will you look the contract over for me? Please? I need to know this is legit and doesn’t require me to sign over my soul.”

“Of course,” he said. “Send it along. I’ll review the terms, flag anything that needs discussion.”

“I owe you,” she said.

“You owe me nothing,” he replied. “This is what friends do.”

“I’m still paying you when I get the check.”

“How about you just take me and Cece out to dinner?”

“If that’s all you want, that’s fine by me.”

They talked for a few more minutes, mostly about not responding immediately and about remembering to breathe. Then Blaise hung up and sat there, staring at the sunlight pooling on the floor.

The house felt different now. She felt different. This kind of opportunity had weight, she realized. It changed your whole outlook. It changed the air you breathed.

She sent the contract to Joe, then picked up her phone again, fingers hovering over the Queen Bees thread, then paused. This deserved to be shared properly. Which she would do tonight, in person, at book club. Even if Gigi was going to be there.

She put the phone down and returned to her laptop, though she knew she wouldn’t get much more writing done this morning. Still, she typed a few lines, wanting to mark the moment in a way that seemed truly fitting.

Later, she’d walk over to Brick’s with Beau and tell him in person, too. She pictured his face, the way his eyes would crinkle when he smiled, the pride he’d try to downplay.

Tonight, there would be book club. Gigi would be there, which Blaise wasn’t so sure about, but the signatures were a done deal. The pushback against Darcy would already be in motion. Thanks to Paige and all the rest of the Queen Bees.

Those amazing women. Those dear friends. Tonight, Blaise would sit with those women and know she was where she was meant to be.

After losing Jay and then getting scammed, she’d struggled to imagine what her future would be like. Right now, the future felt not just possible, but bright.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Cece sharpened her pencil, then stopped and smiled at herself.

She didn’t use pencils very often these days. Everything lived in her laptop now—notes, outlines, episode ideas—but this morning, she’d pulled out a legal pad and an actual pencil, the yellow kind with a pink eraser, because she needed to think without a screen pressuring her.

She sat on the couch, sunlight filtering in through the front windows, warming the floors. Peanut sat nearby on the arm of the couch, tail wrapped neatly around her feet, watching Cece with mild suspicion.

“It’s just a pencil,” Cece said. “Or are you trying to get more treats out of me?”

Peanut blinked slowly and tipped her head in a blatant show of cuteness.

“Mm-hmm, treats. I thought so. You’re going to have to wait a bit, baby girl.” Cece tapped the pencil against the legal pad and thought.

The Joe episode was done. Recorded, edited, scheduled, queued. She’d listened through it twice already and felt good about it. Joe had a way of explaining things without sounding like he was explaining them, which was kind of genius.

This morning, though, she was working ahead.

The next episode was going to be something special. Not that all her guests weren’t special, they were. But this one was big. It was also going to be her first interview that didn’t involve someone from the Colony. It would be done via video call, although Cece would only be using the audio portion for her podcast.

She wrote the woman’s name across the top of the page and smiled.

Marlene Reyes.

Retired scientist. Amateur astronomer. Lifelong stargazer. Former systems analyst at NASA. And, according to what Marlene had explained in the email she’d sent, the first person to notice something in the night sky that wasn’t behaving the way it should.

Cece had replied to her immediately, wanting to book Marlene as soon as possible. Marlene had just replied this morning that she was available and could do the interview on Friday.